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Tbob Samba Member
Joined: May 26, 2007 Posts: 417 Location: Pensacola, Fl.
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Posted: Sun May 10, 2020 4:17 am Post subject: Re: DPD A/C unit, can't find comparison |
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There is a write-up "DPD air conditioning for the VW Bus" in the Bay window stickies that I found highly informative. The writer adapted a later Sanden Compressor and Honda pully with a thin serpentine belt and it all seems to work well. I have never seen that style of DPD underdash system, but I like the idea of accessing your fuses without dropping the unit. Or extending the wires and relocating the fuse box. One of the reasons I have never installed mine.
I wonder if yours is an early version? The chrome trim was more in style in the late 60's early 70's than it was a decade later, although the busses themselves never had any dashboard chrome embellishment throughout the run. Could be that DPD was responding to the prevailing American styling of the day?! _________________ 1969 Deluxe, owned since 1973
1973 Westfalia, owned since 1983
1980 Westfalia, watercooled conversion
1985 Westfalia, stock!
1986 Westfakia, Audi I-4 conversion
A couple of trucks and a couple of Jeeps |
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vwmaniaman Samba Member
Joined: June 07, 2005 Posts: 562 Location: Grand Rivers,KY
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Posted: Sat Jul 31, 2021 7:04 pm Post subject: Re: DPD A/C unit, can't find comparison |
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I have one of that same DPD units in my attic. It was intended for my 1975 Westy. I bought it as a spare for my 1968 bus when I lived in Arizona. It always worked very well and with the dual fans the passenger could stay a little warmer. Mine had the condenser coil below it under the front floor. It was a major current pull on my 30 amp generator on my 1600 motor. _________________ Working on a VW is like fun with a friend!
65 Beetle
75 Westy "Pumpkin Van"
86 Westy "Brown Betty"
87 Cabrio |
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SGKent Samba Member
Joined: October 30, 2007 Posts: 41031 Location: Citrus Heights CA (Near Sacramento)
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Posted: Sat Jul 31, 2021 7:09 pm Post subject: Re: DPD A/C unit, can't find comparison |
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vwmaniaman wrote: |
I have one of that same DPD units in my attic. It was intended for my 1975 Westy. I bought it as a spare for my 1968 bus when I lived in Arizona. It always worked very well and with the dual fans the passenger could stay a little warmer. Mine had the condenser coil below it under the front floor. It was a major current pull on my 30 amp generator on my 1600 motor. |
meaning you flew backwards _________________ “Most people don’t know what they’re doing, and a lot of them are really good at it.” - George Carlin |
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metahacker Samba Member
Joined: May 26, 2010 Posts: 692 Location: san.diego
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Posted: Wed Oct 13, 2021 9:04 pm Post subject: Re: DPD A/C unit, can't find comparison |
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hey @badstuw - any updates?
any one have any pics of this particular unit to share ?
i am also in san diego and recently acquired the same unit ... missing 1 of the vents though .. will probably have to design something to print on my 3d printer ..
i'm curious what this thing looks like installed, i've never seen one fitted ... and i'm not quite at the stage where im going to pull my parcel trays off for the test fit ..
it's interesting that it's one continuous evaporator core inside of the entire unit .. the other ones i've seen used 2 smaller cores, or 1 core on the passenger side vented over to the driver ..
i want to say that that the BTU capacity vs total size on this seems to be much higher than the other bus under-dash evaps i've seen (besides the Ice Auto Air one from San Diego...it seems to be ALL evap core in there.... but i've been trying to get Robert to sell me one of those for 2+ years....) ... it's also quite a bit narrower, overall.
i can't seem to figure out the details on this thing .. the guys at Gilmore told me that DPD made this because they wanted it for their own personal buses ... i believe it was offered pretty late in the game - 79 maybe? |
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metahacker Samba Member
Joined: May 26, 2010 Posts: 692 Location: san.diego
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Posted: Thu Nov 04, 2021 12:01 am Post subject: Re: DPD A/C unit, can't find comparison |
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Here's a pic of mine taken apart.... I have to say, this is a really interesting unit.
The small external appearance of the unit is misleading.
The evap core inside is massive.
When I asked the Gilmore guys about the capacity they said the single evap is similar to what the total system size would be in a front/rear evap setup.
My speculation is that this was the final DPD revision for 1979.
EDIT: fixed image link
Last edited by metahacker on Wed Dec 29, 2021 1:53 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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webwalker Samba Member
Joined: January 26, 2006 Posts: 2803 Location: Mount Laurel, NJ
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Posted: Thu Nov 04, 2021 6:20 am Post subject: Re: DPD A/C unit, can't find comparison |
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metahacker wrote: |
Here's a pic of mine taken apart.... I have to say, this is a really interesting unit.
The small external appearance of the unit is misleading.
The evap core inside is massive.
When I asked the Gilmore guys about the capacity they said the single evap is similar to what the total system size would be in a front/rear evap setup.
My speculation is that this was the final DPD revision for 1979.
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Man, that has got to be some nervous work pulling all of that fragile plastic apart! I remember looking at a DPD over head unit about 20 years ago in a bone yard, putting my hand on it, and the corner splitting right off! I wandered off quickly. _________________ "Consistent maintenance with quality products is the cheapest warranty you'll ever need."
1977 CE1 Transporter Deluxe, Subaru EJ22, Skills Cooling, Steedle HD 091 w/ GuardT .82 4th
Click to view image |
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badstuw Samba Member
Joined: June 05, 2011 Posts: 36 Location: San Diego CA
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Posted: Sat Nov 06, 2021 8:47 pm Post subject: Re: DPD A/C unit, can't find comparison |
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metahacker wrote: |
Here's a pic of mine taken apart.... I have to say, this is a really interesting unit.
The small external appearance of the unit is misleading.
The evap core inside is massive.
When I asked the Gilmore guys about the capacity they said the single evap is similar to what the total system size would be in a front/rear evap setup.
My speculation is that this was the final DPD revision for 1979.
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Nice!. I did take the entire unit apart and cleaned it all out, much as you did. I actually paused on my a/c install since I undertook a bigger project last winter and did a full Subaru swap. Finished the swap in February and haven't revisited the a/c portion yet, having too much fun at highway speeds . I have two of these units since airschooled hooked it up.
If you need the additional vent, I could probably help you out, since I really don't need two units. Was just holding on to it for spare parts in case of failure. I also have the underbelly condenser with fans and shroud that go with this. PM if interested. |
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69BahamaYellow Samba Member
Joined: April 22, 2011 Posts: 537 Location: Talbott, TN
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Posted: Tue Nov 09, 2021 5:15 am Post subject: Re: DPD A/C unit, can't find comparison |
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The Evaporator core in the overhead DPD system measures to 464 cubic inches. It’s big, and yours appears to be similar in size. I have no idea what the refrigerant mass flow rates through the old York compressors was, and considering the fact this evaporator is a single path tube and fin design, And you will probably be running 134A instead of R12 refrigerant (as it was designed for), there’s no way to know what the BTU capacity actually is, so just measuring volume is really the best comparison you can make. I can cool my whole bus to low 70’sF in 100+F heat in direct sunlight. It takes about 30,000 BTU to do that, so my best guess is that’s the capacity of that big evaporator. Put the biggest one you can fit in yours that will match up to the compressor you choose. If your evaporator is too big for your compressor, it may not stay fully flooded with liquid refrigerant, and won’t be as efficient as a smaller one. |
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